User:OldakQuill/bucking
Bucking was a form of positional torture employed during the American Civil War.[1] The subject would sit on the floor with bended knees, their wrists would be bound together, and lowered over their knees. A stick would then be placed below their knees, and above their arms, forcing them to maintain this position for as long as the stick remained in place.[1] Edward Nixon, a 19th century keeper in Sing Sing prison described that "[on] witnessing my first case of bucking, the circumstances most impressed on my mind were the brutality of the operation and the calm callousness of the officer."[2] Amos Pilsbury, superintendent of Albany penitentiary in 1967 "disapproved of [bucking] entirely", stating that he found it (along with crucifixion and yoking) "cruel and degrading, more so than any of the punishments for which they have been substituted".[3]
Notes[edit]
- ^ a b Winchester 1998, p. 53
- ^ Wines 1867, p. 379
- ^ Wines 1867, p. 460
References[edit]
- Wines, EC, ed. (1867). Twenty-second Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the Prison Association of New York. Albany, NY: The Prison Association of New York.
- Winchester, Simon (1998). The Surgeon of Crowthorne. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140271287.